The Boogie Marathon

Jimbo at 8 miles

About two miles into it

The temperature at the start line, about 7:15 pm after I had done the first 6 miles

The temperature after I had finished - somewhere around midnight

The Boogie Marathon - A great experience in the heat and humiduty of North Carolina. To sum up: Hot, humid, bugs as big as pigeons, hills, hot and a fabulously organized event.

The race HQ is at the Bethel Baptist Church. We started off with the race briefing at 5:30 - I looked at the thermometer which was on the chruch steps, it was well into the 90's. Doug Dawkins is the race director, and he is an amazing character who recently completed a cross country run - have a read of this article http://www.ncultra.org/article.php?story=20090113071243881, and his diary of the journey. http://dougsrun.wordpress.com/. Lots of warnings about the fact that we were entering one of the few areas of NC where there are rattle snakes. Oh joy. Doug was particularly proud of the fact that there were two runners using the Boogie as a Badwater training run. There is also another runner who is running the Blue Ridge Relay solo - that is 208 miles in 60 hours.

The course is a 6 mile loop, and after two of the loops there is a 4 mile out and back. There are two aid stations on at the church, and one a little over half way round the loop.

My plan was to take my time - and I did just that. My official time will be about 5:40 - my actual running time was about 5:20. The first 6 miles were incredibly hot, and I was chugging fluids - I figured out later that in the first 10 miles, I drank over a gallon. I was doing my normal trick of adding a gel to my water bottle, I just can't take gels neat.

On the second loop, it started to get dark, and once I had my light on, I thought every stick on the side of the road was rattler!

One thing I noticed is my walking pace has really picked up, I walked up the main hills, and I certainly noticed that I was catching up with other walkers, so I was very pleased with that.

So, I planned to finish alive, and finish strong. I suceeded in both. On top of that, it was a great marathon that I would recommend to anyone. Oh, and there is a great finishers prize, a really nice coffee mug - a unique prize that I will treasure. I know I will be back, next year, I will probably do the 50 miler.

Now's the time to taper prior to Laramie.